Factors influencing tourists' shared bicycle loyalty in Hangzhou, China.

Focusing on Hangzhou, a famous tourist city in China, in this study, four regression models were constructed through four items of tourist loyalty to investigate the influence of tourist perceptions and characteristics on male and female tourist loyalty to shared bicycles. A questionnaire survey and ordered logistic regression model techniques were used. Survey data from 467 tourists indicated that there were significant differences between male and female tourists. For male tourists, their willingness to reuse shared bicycles (Models 1 and 2) was positively correlated with ease of access to cycles, environmental awareness, psychological benefit, and management provision; however, their willingness to recommend shared bicycles (Models 3 and 4) was only affected by environmental awareness, psychological benefit, and management provision. Among female tourists, willingness to reuse shared bicycles (Models 1 and 2) was affected by ease of access to cycles, environmental awareness, and rule adherence, while their willingness to recommend shared bicycles (Models 3 and 4) was affected by ease of access to cycles, environmental awareness, psychological benefit, and managerial provision. In addition, female tourists' socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics had a significant impact on their loyalty, among which length of stay in Hangzhou and education were significant in the four regression models, and number of visits to Hangzhou had a positive impact on female tourists' willingness to reuse (Models 1 and 2). In addition, female tourists who used Hellobike had higher willingness to reuse and recommend than those who used Mobike. For male tourists, only length of stay in Hangzhou had a significant impact on their reuse intention (Model 2). The current study extends the theory of attribution to explore the factors which may affect tourist's loyalty to bicycle-sharing from the perspectives of tourists' perceptions. It will provide further support to decision makers in the development of new shared-bicycle systems at Chinese tourist destinations, with the aim of strengthening tourist loyalty to shared-bicycle programs.

Exploring seasonal diurnal surface temperature variation in cities based on ECOSTRESS data: A local climate zone perspective.

High urban temperatures affect city livability and may be harmful for inhabitants. Analyzing spatial and temporal differences in surface temperature and the thermal impact of urban morphological heterogeneity can promote strategies to improve the insulation of the urban thermal environment. Therefore, we analyzed the diurnal variation of land surface temperature (LST) and seasonal differences in the Fifth Ring Road area of Beijing from the perspective of the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) using latest ECOSTRESS data. We used ECOSTRESS LST data with a resolution of 70 m to accurately interpret the effects of urban morphology on the local climate. The study area was dominated by the LCZ9 type (sparse low-rise buildings) and natural LCZ types, such as LCZA/B (woodland), LCZD (grassland), and LCZG (water body), mainly including park landscapes. There were significant differences in LST observed in different seasons as well as day and night. During daytime, LST was ranked as follows: summer > spring > autumn > winter. During night-time, it was ranked as follows: summer > autumn > spring > winter. All data indicated that the highest and lowest LST was observed in summer and winter, respectively. LST was consistent with LCZ in terms of spatial distribution. Overall, the LST of each LCZ during daytime was higher than that of night-time during different seasons (except winter), and the average LST of each LCZ during the diurnal period in summer was higher than that of other seasons. The LST of each LCZ during daytime in winter was lower than that of the corresponding night-time, which indicates that it is colder in the daytime during winter. The results presented herein can facilitate improved analysis of spatial and temporal differences in surface temperature in urban areas, leading to the development of strategies aimed at improving livability and public health in cities.

COVID-19 risk perception and tourist satisfaction: A mixed-method study of the roles of destination image and self-protection behavior.

This study aimed to examine the effects of COVID-19 risk perception on negative destination image and self-protection behavior, and the resultant effects on tourist satisfaction. Hence, this study applied a continuous interpretive mixed-method design combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. A quantitative survey (n = 486) in the cities of Ningbo, Huangshan, and Chengdu, China, and 19 qualitative interviews were conducted online. The results of the quantitative study show that: (1) Risk perception and negative destination image are antecedent variables influencing tourist satisfaction, and (2) there are significant positive correlations between risk perception and negative destination image, risk perception and tourist self-protection behavior, and negative destination image and tourist self-protection behavior. Moreover, (3) negative destination image had a partial mediating effect between risk perception and satisfaction. Furthermore, to supplement the research data and expand the quantitative findings, this study further examined whether the above variables are related to tourist satisfaction, through in-depth interviews with tourists. The findings showed that COVID-19 risk perception, negative destination image, and self-protection behavior all affect tourist satisfaction. The findings provide valuable crisis management suggestions for the government and should contribute to the efforts of tourist destinations to build a healthy and safe image, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of tourism industries in the post-epidemic era.

The role of seasonality in assessments of conflict tendency between tourism development and ecological preservation in protected areas: The case of protected areas in China.

Conflict management in PAs (Protected Areas) is becoming increasingly important in the context of the rapid development of nature-based tourism. Literature proposes the Index of Conflict tendency between Tourism development and ecological Protection (ICTP) to analyze the tendency of conflict from a spatial perspective, but this index does not consider the factor of seasonality which is important in tourism. The current study considers seasonality and proposes the CVD (Coverage- Variation- Duration) framework to conduct a spatio-temporal analysis of the ICTP. The applied research based on the case of China's V-PAs (a specific category of PAs) reflects that the CVD framework can describe the spatial distribution of the ICTP from a seasonal perspective. The study finds that, among V-PAs in China, 42.16% of the areas with high ICTP of V-PAs have obvious seasonal variations, which shows that PAs conflict management must incorporate the factor of seasonality. The study also shows that 8.98% of V-PAs have large-scale coverage of areas with high ICTP, revealing priorities for conflict management. 3.96% of V-PAs have large-scale coverage of areas with high ICTP showing seasonal changes. Management in these areas should pay attention to seasonal changes to become more effective. The CVD framework proposed in this paper is operable and extendable and can provide analytical tools for PAs conflict management, and promote ecological protection and more sustainable tourism development in PAs.

Spatiotemporal variability in urban HORECA food consumption and its ecological footprint in China.

Increasing hotel/restaurant/café (HORECA) food consumption (HFC) has become one of the most prominent features of food consumption transformation under the background of rapid urbanization in China. Combining direct-weighing data (using 11,883 dishes in 164 restaurants) and literature data, this study, for the first time, quantitatively calculated the amount of HFC and its ecological footprint (EF) in China in 2002 and 2015 to depict the environmental effects of this transformation. The results indicated that per capita HFC tripled from 320 g/cap/meal in 2002 to 852 g/cap/meal in 2015, representing an average annual growth rate of 13%. In addition, by scaling up the HFC in 31 provinces/municipalities/autonomous regions to the national scale, HFC in China increased by 12,612 tons from 2002 to 2015. Finally, the total EF in the HORECA sector increased nearly 33 times (or 44,440 global ha), from 1348 global ha in 2002 to 45,788 global ha in 2015. The EF of Guangdong increased the most, surpassing 4000 global ha in 2015. These findings provide a scientific basis to support improved food resource spatial allocation and mitigation of regional resource pressure to achieve sustainable consumption under the current background of rapid urbanization in China.

The weight of unfinished plate: A survey based characterization of restaurant food waste in Chinese cities.

Consumer food waste has attracted increasing public, academic, and political attention in recent years, due to its adverse resource, environmental, and socioeconomic impacts. The scales and patterns of consumer food waste, especially in developing countries, however, remain poorly understood, which may hinder the global effort of reducing food waste. In this study, based on a direct weighing method and a survey of 3557 tables in 195 restaurants in four case cities, we investigated the amount and patterns of restaurant food waste in China in 2015. Food waste per capita per meal in the four cities was 93g, consisting mainly of vegetables (29%), rice (14%), aquatic products (11%), wheat (10%), and pork (8%). This equals to approximately 11kg/cap/year and is not far from that of western countries, although per capita GDP of China is still much lower. We found also that food waste per capita per meal varies considerably by cities (Chengdu and Lhasa higher than Shanghai and Beijing), consumer groups (tourists higher than local residents), restaurant categories (more waste in larger restaurants), and purposes of meals (friends gathering and business banquet higher than working meal and private dining). Our pilot study provides a first, to our best knowledge, empirically determined scales and patterns of restaurant food waste in Chinese cities, and could help set targeted interventions and benchmark national food waste reduction targets.